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Ever since returning from my long bank holiday weekend away on Monday I've had a stinky head cold followed by high temperatures. Confined to my bed for reasons other than being lazy (unlike usual) I've simply been watching films, series, and playing a game that made it's way to my door recently: Two Worlds.

I hadn't heard anything about Two Worlds before a month ago when idle chatter on an IRC room I frequent sparked my interest. Heralded as a cross between Oblivion and the Gothic series, I became interested. Even now I haven't read up on the game, I've simply installed and played it. As far as I know it has had a confusing release, where by it has been out in many European countries for something like a couple of months, and is yet to be released in countries like the US. Seems odd, but I'm not getting involved.

As far as the game goes; it's not Oblivion, and it's not Gothic 3, but I'm certainly finding it enjoyable (it could be the pills I'm popping every 4 hours...).

The game is played in a 3rd person perspective. No first person option available. While this is slightly annoying to begin with you should quickly get used to it. I'm an FPS fan, but it seems fine to me now.

The combat is bland, often revolving around taking four swipes with your sword, jumping back (that's a bound key) to avoid a hit, then repeating. Mobs revolve around meeting one of the following options: 3 - 5 wolves, 3 - 6 bandits or 1 bear. This scales up as you progress (to things like Orcs, Wyverns, and spiders..woo!). So, combat isn't exactly great and definately not unique. Ultimately death comes to you when you meet a hard hitting mob (like the bear) along with 3 - 5 wolves or bandits (or all of them).

Visually the game is appealing, if not slightly in need of more aliasing. While I run the game at x4 AA it still looks pretty jaggy in places which is not helped by the crazy amounts of foliage. More than your run of the mill Oblivion game, anyway. You'll see some great views though, with castles, towers, mountains, trees, rivers, etc. being visible for miles and miles.

The game world is big enough. While nothing ridiculously huge, if it were any bigger I'd probably be put off playing. The usual environments are there; woods, mountains, beaches and deserts.

It's an open-ended game, just like Oblivion; so quests can be done as and when wanted. The quests are your usual run-of-the-mill "go here, do that, come back for a reward" type, but since the levelling system works off conventional XP it seems a little more worth it than it does in Oblivion. Running around in the wilderness does have its uses, mainly in finding rare alchemy ingredients, but there's a real lack of deep, entertaining or challenging dungeons available. The developers obviously aren't great fans of dungeons. Outsides good, insides bad.

Alchemy actually has a use in Two Worlds, allowing you to produce "permanent effect" potions; potions that permanently add to your stats. Coupled with that is a system where-by you can compound the same items into high-level versions of the same item. Ergo if you have two class 1 "Sword of the Light", you can put them together to create a class 2 "Sword of the Light" that will have a higher damage rating, and sometimes extra buffs. It adds a little more depth to the inventory system and helps to ensure you're not constantly at the merchants trying to buy new armour every couple of levels.

There's probably more, but I can't be bothered to ramble any more. I'll put it simply; the game is nothing special, but if you're a lover of open-ended RPGs, or like listening to your own music while rambling through the wilderness then this game is probably for you. I've finally gotten around to listening to that Metallica S&M album I've been putting off for years...